Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and congratulated Mr. Graham Boase on his new role as the Council’s Corporate Director Economy and Public Realm.  The Chair also conveyed a special welcome to Co-opted Member Mike Hall who was attending his first meeting of the committee as a Parent Governor Representative.

There were no apologies.

The following councillors declared a personal interest in Agenda Item 5 –

Councillor Huw Hilditch-Roberts – Chair of Governors Ysgol Pen Barras

Councillor Merfyn Parry – Governor Ysgol Rhewl, Ysgol Bryn Clwyd, Ysgol Gellifor

Councillor Arwel Roberts – Governor Ysgol y Castell & Ysgol Dewi Sant

Councillor Huw Williams – Parent of child in Ysgol Pen Barras

Councillor Emrys Wynne – Governor Ysgol Borthyn and he had also been involved, along with family members, in the campaign to support Category 1 education (language) in the Pentrecelyn and Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd area.

No urgent matters had been raised.

To receive the minutes of the Communities Scrutiny Committee held on 7 September 2017 (copy enclosed).

The minutes of the Committee’s meeting held on 7 September 2017 were submitted.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 7 September 2017 be received and approved as a correct record.

To consider a report by the Principal Education Support Manager (copy enclosed) outlining progress of the Ruthin Primary Area Review and lessons learnt to date from the work undertaken.

The Lead Member for Education, Children and Young People, introduced the Principal Education Support Manager’s report (previously circulated) and advised that the report was being presented to members at the Committee’s request, as during the term of the previous Council members had requested to review the progress of the Ruthin area primary education review, specifically to understand the lessons learnt during the exercise with a view to improving similar processes for any future reviews.

For the benefit of new councillors, the Lead Member and Head of Education and Children’s Services outlined the background to the primary education area reviews that had been undertaken in various parts of the county in recent years.  They advised that the objective of the reviews were to –

·         ensure the sustainability of high quality education provision across the county

·         improve the quality of school buildings and associated facilities, and

·         ensure that the right number of school places were available in the right locations.

They also emphasised that whilst the Ruthin area review was being undertaken three different Welsh Government (WG) Ministers/Cabinet Secretaries had been in charge of the education portfolio.  Each one having a slightly different approach or emphasis in relation to the need to address surplus school places if intending to apply for WG capital funding for educational facilities.  Denbighshire had commenced the process of modernising the delivery of its education services in 2009 when it had adopted its Modernising Education Policy Framework.  This Framework formed the basis for the Council to strategically plan how and where education services would be delivered in future.  The WG Education Minster at that time was quite clear that local authorities would have to address the number of surplus school places they had within their schools if they wanted to bid for 21st Century Schools funding from WG.  Evidencing how they were addressing the issue of surplus places was a key requirement when submitting applications for 21st Century Schools funding for new educational capital projects.  For the Council to successfully draw down this funding school reorganisation work had to take place, therefore some school closures were inevitable.  The WG Minister underlined the need to address surplus places when he wrote to local authorities in 2012.  From Denbighshire’s perspective Cabinet approved the six recommendations detailed in the report in relation to future primary education provision in the Ruthin area at its meeting in June 2013.  However, in October of the same year the WG introduced a School Reorganisation Code, this new Code had major implications for the depth of information that had to be provided during the formal consultation stages on school reorganisation proposals.  Whilst this Code was very specific about the mandatory requirements of the consultation process it also contained some suggestions on what aspects ‘should’ be incorporated.  However it fell short of requiring local authorities to undertake these aspects.  In hindsight, it would have been better to have undertaken these steps as well, as these were the elements on which the Council was judged to have fallen short on in the cases that were referred to the Minister and the High Court.  It was also highlighted that in the case of Ysgol Llanbedr Dyffryn Clwyd the Council was still awaiting the Ministerial decision in relation to the second appeal lodged against the decision to close the school, 18 months after the decision had been referred to the Welsh Government.

Responding to members’ questions the Lead Member, Head of Service and officers:

·         advised that the Council’s statutory duty in relation to education was to provide the county’s pupils with education of the highest quality.  To enable this and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Scrutiny Coordinator submitted a report (previously circulated) seeking members’ review of the Committee’s work programme and provided an update on relevant issues.

Discussion focused on the following –

·         the Scrutiny Chairs and Vice Chairs Group had referred a matter for scrutiny relating to Tourist Signs for the Vale of Clwyd and the committee agreed to consider that item at their next meeting on 30 November

·         in response to concerns raised by members regarding the capacity of various schools within the county to cope with the demand for places, those members were encouraged to complete the necessary proposal form for submission to the Chairs and Vice Chairs Group for further consideration as appropriate

·         questions were raised regarding the 21st Century Schools Programme Band B proposals and members were advised that a report on those proposals had recently been submitted to Cabinet – the Scrutiny Coordinator agreed to circulate that information to committee members outside of the meeting

·         members noted that the item on the Draft Tree Maintenance Policy (provisionally scheduled for the October meeting) had been deferred to January 2018 with the Chair’s permission as further work was required on the policy before it was ready to be presented to the Committee for observations

·         a future item on the Committee’s work programme related to the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) but officers explained that it had never been introduced and responsibility for it had since been transferred from the UK Government to the Welsh Government.  It was noted that Welsh Government was reviewing the CIL with the aim of introducing something different for Wales but there was currently no indication on when proposals were likely to be published.  The Committee agreed to remove that topic from the work programme and to consider scrutinising future proposals in that regard once they emerged

·         members’ attention was drawn to the committee information brief (previously circulated) which included an update on matters arising from the previous meeting which had not been covered in the work programme report

·         expressions of interest were sought from committee members following a request to nominate a representative on the School Standards Monitoring Group, details of which had been previously circulated to members

·         finally members were reminded that the Welsh Local Government Association would be delivering a training session on Chairing Skills specifically for scrutiny committees which had been scheduled for 2.00 p.m. on Thursday, 2 November in the Council Chamber, County Hall, Ruthin.

After due deliberation it was:

RESOLVED that –

(a)       subject to the above, the forward work programme as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report be approved, and

(b)       Councillor Graham Timms be appointed the Committee’s representative on the Schools Standards Monitoring Group.

Councillor Glenn Swingler referred to his recent attendance at a meeting of the Customers, Communication and Marketing Service Challenge and reported upon discussions for a clear overarching Tourism Strategy; provided an update on ‘EMMA’ and the development of a new CRM system, and referred to positive steps to increase the Council’s use of social media.

RESOLVED that the verbal report be received and noted.

The meeting concluded at 12.25 p.m.